Zero hours contracts: Extreme segmentation: the labour market dynamic

The news that the number of zero hours employees have been greatly undercounted illustrates a fundamental change in labour market dynamics. We are seeing an acceleration in the divide between the haves and the have nots. Those in the core on good pay, benefits and job security and those outside the core on poor pay, limited benefits and insecurity.

This enhanced segmentation highlights issues of social cohesion and human capital development. Could it represent the marginalisation of the young, the old and the unskilled into labour market ghettos, conceptual slums bottom feeding from leftovers of the core. A world where our children, our older relatives and the disadvantaged live on the crumbs from the rich person’s table. Not quite the brave new world we hoped for.